Because using mods brings more to it than a "quick fix". Maintenance and the risk that they break every time there's an update. It's a PITA really, if you're not a big fan of managing mods.

The real answer (minus cheat modes) is to stay aware and well-fed so that you survive encounters. But, there will be times where you just get in a bad spot and can't escape. Have good backup gear ready so you can jump into it, feed up and do the corpse run. It's a survival game--death is part of that. Understood about wanting to remove the harshness of death and if that's how you want to roll, go for it. It does trivialize the challenges at that point but as you the OP said, sometimes you just want to have a peaceful session and not deal with the hardcore death penalties.